


Shelter

by strawberriesandtophats



Series: Disaster Management has always been their forte [4]
Category: Endeavour (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Relationship Negotiation, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 19:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8070406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberriesandtophats/pseuds/strawberriesandtophats
Summary: Jakes wants Morse to get inside instead of standing in the middle of a garden during a storm. Morse wants to have a serious, emotional conversation about his role in their relationship. Inspector Thursday just wants to catch a murderer.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theCopperCow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theCopperCow/gifts).



Jakes hurried into the garden of the manor house, eyes trained on Constable Morse as he opened the umbrella. His coat was already soaked after just a few steps, even with the protection of the umbrella since the wind was so strong that he could barely move at all. He continued walking, each step a deliberate movement towards Morse. 

Thursday was still inside the manor house, talking with Dr. DeBryn about the body that had been found in front of the staircase. Jakes was willing to bet his lunch that this was all connected to one of the colleges in town at this point in the case. There was an abundance of evidence and several suspects that would have to be investigated in the near future. But the sky was already becoming dark, and there was only a sliver left on the glorious sunset they had seen when they parked in front of the manor earlier that evening.

Morse continued standing in the middle of the garden, seemingly not noticing the ice cold raindrops that slid down his neck from his hair which was plastered to his head. Jakes sighed, picking up the pace. When he had announced that he was going to look for Morse, Inspector Thursday had nodded, having already collected his hat.

“Good luck, Jakes,” Thursday had said, and then clearly turned his attention back to the case at hand. 

A part of Jakes felt oddly pleased that his superior trusted him with finding Morse and making sure that all was well without making some sort of a remark about Jakes’ abilities as a DS. He’d seen too many Inspectors do just that at any given opportunity to be aware of just how good he had it, being Thursday’s Sergeant.

“Let’s get you inside,” Jakes said as soon as he reached Morse, who continued watching the sunset but made a small sound of approval. Jakes wrapped an arm around Morse’s shoulder, steering him towards the building. “If you get sick, I’ll have to pull double duty. And the suspects look like they make all these bloody references to classical literature and strange historical facts and you know that you are the expert when it comes to that-“

Morse made a small sound as he nodded, and Jakes tightened his grip on Morse’s shoulder while tilting the umbrella so that it covered both of them. Morse’s shoes made squelching sounds they walked, a clear indication that they had holes in them at the bottom. The man probably had wet feet by now. Jakes knew that he’d have to make a comment about his own shoes or stop by at a shoe shop in order to make Morse remember that he needed new shoes himself. The man barely remembered that he needed to eat so there was a very slim chance that he’d remember that his scruffy looking shoes had holes in them until rain and mud started to soak his socks again.

Once they were inside, Jakes began looking around for a bathroom, pushing Morse down onto a nearby wooden bench that seemed to exist for no apparent reason inside houses like these. The wind was howling outside, drowning out the other sounds within the house. 

“Stay here, I’m going to find you a towel somewhere-“Jakes began, already stepping towards one of the more promising doors. When Morse was in one of these moods, it was important to be practical and get him somewhere he was at least warm and not likely to be physically assaulted for making know-it-all remarks about things. Thursday’s voice could be heard echoing down one of the hallways, responding to something Dr. DeBryn had said about the victim and Jakes tilted his head to the side, trying to hear what they were saying.

“Listen, Jakes,” Morse said in a low voice, grabbing the very edge of Jakes’s sodden jacket as if he was afraid that they were running out of time. “I appreciate all the things you’ve done for me. But I’m not worth all this fuss. There is no need for you to-“

Jakes blinked, turning around to face Morse who was looking at the tiles on the ground as if he was trying to memorize them. Of course they were running out of time. Their relationship existed during stolen moments in abandoned hallways and cars and locked rooms. All the moments they’d had together were snatched from the jaws of a hostile reality that didn’t like men like them. There was no survival if you were on your own. Not really.

“That’s nonsense. Of course you are,” Jakes remarked, aware that he could hear Thursday’s heavy footsteps come closer. “It’s my job to look after you and make sure you don’t die on my watch because you decided to stay out in this horrible storm alone.” 

Jakes waited until Morse looked up from the tiles and met his eyes before he headed towards the nearest bathroom. Someone had to take care of the man, and Morse wasn’t going to let anyone else near enough to do it. So Jakes opened doors to far more rooms than a family would need in one house until he found a bathroom that was the size of his own bed-sit and began opening cabinets in search of towels.

When Jakes came back from the bathroom with a mint green towel and even more product in his hair, Morse looked like he had calmed down a bit. 

“The best option is to stick together,” Morse said as he caught the towel and began drying his unruly hair, which was already sticking up in several places. There was a faint smile on his face.

“Quite right,” Thursday said, putting on his hat and nodding at them both while motioning towards the door. “I have the feeling I have to have a good grip on both of you if we are all going to make it to the car in once piece.”

“Sir,” Jakes replied, glancing towards Morse who was still drying his hair. He could barely repress a smirk since Morse resembled a fluffy ferret by now, unruly half-dry curls sticking in all directions.

He’d seen this expression on Thursday’s face before. This case was going to a complicated one, with mountains of paperwork and more classical references than was good for anybody who wasn’t an academic. Sometimes having Morse around was like having a built-in translator for all the things the suspects were prone to saying, thinking that they’d get away with it because police officers didn’t know about Romantic poetry.

Jakes opened the door, holding it open so that Thursday could pass. Morse had returned the towel to the bathroom and was striding towards him with a bashful grin on his face. For a split second, Jakes wondered what Morse had seen in his own expression, but brushed the thought away as the door closed behind them and Thursday grabbed them both by the elbow and practically dragged them to the car.

Opening the front passenger door felt like far too much hassle since the wind was so strong that it was likely that the door could be straight up torn off. So Jakes contented himself with sitting in the backseat along with Morse, who was already searching for the threadbare blanket. And when Morse threw the rest of the blanket over Jakes’ legs when he’d covered his own, Jakes didn’t say a word and tried to ignore the fact that their hands brushed whenever the car hit a pothole in the road. Morse looked alert, his eyes trained on the view outside as if he could find all the secrets in the universe by looking at trees and the dark sky.

The car drove on, the lights of the city illuminating strange nooks and crannies as they reached the streets near Jakes’ bedsit. Jakes straightened up, taking off the blanket and spending a few seconds arranging it so that it covered Morse, who was dozing, more fully before the car stopped. When he looked up, he saw that Thursday was looking at them in the rear-view mirror with a thoughtful gleam in his eyes.

“Goodnight,” Jakes said, stepping out of the car and breathing in the cold air. He closed the door, leaving Morse behind in the warmth of the car. Jakes made his way across the street as fast as he could without running, avoiding the cold rain and deliberately not looking back as he listened intently to the sound of the car driving away from him.


End file.
